For this reason, I found myself one day counting up the number of people of different beliefs who had solemnly promised to pray for me.

There were Methodists, Campbellites, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Seventh Day Adventists, Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Holy Rollers, and others.

Then the query arose: Whose prayers will be answered on my behalf?
Each is sure that _his_ are the ones that can be effective; yet their prayers differ; they are, to some degree, antagonistic, and insofar as they petition that I become one of their particular fold, they nullify each other, as it is utterly impossible that I accept the specific form of faith of each.

The consequent result in my own mind is that as I cannot possibly become what all these good people desire I should be, as their desires and prayers for me controvert each other, I must respectfully decline to be bound by any one of them.

I _must_ and _will_ do my own choosing.